What a day! First we slept in.....the alarm was set but not turned on...oops must have been those sleepy eyes and that foggy brain! I After a nice continental breakfast, we waited for Renault to come pick us up...and waited some more. Just after 10 Gord phoned Renault and corrected the name of our hotel...he had been waiting at the Hilton...another foggy moment?..We picked up our car on a farm--with fields filled with Citroens and Peugots. The farm has been repurposed. Then things really got interesting.
To reintroduce ourselves to European...

So today we're back at the Hellhoff in Klagenfurt. Rooms up loads of stairs with no lift and crap internet at a fee... and were here a few days as well! TYPICAl!
We had managed to get a lie in this morning, we'd agreed, as we were travelling on a Saturday that we'd leave about half 10, as the transgender hotel manageress probably wouldn't let us into our rooms early!
ME and Luke were there at 10:30, Hannah at 11... where's Tosin?! Jammy bugger had slept in... although we were kept waiting for an hour at least it wasn't on a show day - no...

“Another day, another dollar”, another show, another snow related delay. Me and Hannah had gone to fetch the van so we could load our suitcases…. She was driving and a simple reverse out of the car parking space and onto the road (2 mins max) became a thirty point turn and hence we were running late already. Matters weren’t helped when I came to pay for my laundry – the €50 note I’d put in my pocket to pay after the current customer had finished and I’d loaded my luggage had suddenly disappeared. I retraced my steps and scoured the area,...

This morning we had a later start, so I took the chance to go for a walk in Portschach, as we have been here three nights already, and I had not seen much of the place. Took another bunch of photos, and got back to the bus about 10 minutes before we were due to head off to Klagenfurt.
Klagenfurt is the capital of Carinthia, one of the nine regions of Austria, so they have a local council for the town, and also the seat of the regional government based there. The town was only founded about 800 years ago, so the legend goes, after the dragon...

OK, so our next day's excursion was a trip to the Hohe Tauern National Park at Mallnitz. The park is home to the Swarovski International Water School. Our guide, Klaus, took a group of us on a 4km walk in the Park. There were lots of beautiful waterfalls, streams, rocks and mud and toadstools... great fun! No one tripped over or broke any bones climbing up and down the rocky paths, which is just as well, because another lady, Ingrid from the USA, slipped and fell getting out of the bath yesterday morning, and broke her arm! They say these...

An easy day today, except for the early start, but still waking early so it was ok. We left the hotel about 8.30, and made our way to a boat to go to where our bus was parked. Passing through Piazza San Marco for the last time, we saw a crowd of people dressed up, and they had some ladders up the flagpoles. The guide, Gabriele (Fabio is a nickname :)), told us that they were raising the flags, one for Italy, the EU flag, and the Venetian one. This happens every Sunday morning! Certainly a lot more pomp and ceremony than we usually have for...

Once we hit Austria the countryside was just beautiful, the road winding around and directly through the mountains. It was awesome. Some of the tunnels were like 5km's long and you'd be driving and the outside temp was -5C and then in the middle of the tunnel it got up to like 15C, it was crazy how much the temp changed just driving through there.
It was a long drive but we finally arrived at Sylvia's. Her place was small, bathroom, kitchen and bed/lounge room [like a studio apartment] but it was nice. Her bathroom was like a sauna, so warm...

We left Slovenia and headed northeast to Klagenfurt Austria where we said goodbye to Herman (as he was heading back to Germany)and met our Londoner/Canadian friend Sean at the train station. He brought his bike and did a 6 day tour with us. We rode around nearby Lake Worthersee then travelled east through cornfields, forests, rolling hills and beautiful villages along bike paths on the Drave River. What a picturesque route!

Kia ora koutou e te whanau, we all arrived in Spittal this evening,a little town surrounded by mountains. Today in our Spittal audience were three people from home who came to have a chat before the show, one became very teary eyed after just a few minutes as she told us that she had been living in Austria for 25 years, another who has been in Spittal for 18 months and looking forward to going home in 6 months was glad to be talking with fellow Kiwis about kiwi sports ,or just anything to do with home to the amazement of our young...

Christmas is a little different here. It is more about seeing one's family and great food than presents and spending money. In my family we do try to focus on being around our loved ones, rather than the presents, but the spending is always in the background. I almost feel guilty if I don't buy everyone something nice.
Since Sabine's family had already opened presents on Christmas Eve, there was no rush in the morning. Everyone woke up at different times and I had toast and coffee for breakfast, just like on any other morning.
For lunch,...